Saturday, March 11, 2017

Art Quilts International: Abstract and Geometric (continued)

Hand Stitching is a Time For Reflection

Not To Know But To Go On 2010 - 2013 hand stitch, found cloth, artist canvas

My art is about relationships: with family, with nature, and with my inner self. My art is the only place where I feel I can express these things and communicate about them on a deep level. Repetition of simple small stitch marks over a large area can be powerful.

not to know but to go on detail Judy Martin couching

In 2010, I was startled by how old I was going to be on my next birthday and felt the necessity to mark each day of my sixtieth year. Every day I used up an entire skein of embroidery floss and some of the fabrics that I'd been keeping safe.

not to know but to go on, hand stitch on canvas

I kept going, stitching everyday for three complete years, ending the work on my sixty-second birthday. Part of me wanted to keep doing it for the rest of my life, the other part of me needed to stop spending so much of my valuable time on Not To Know But To Go On.

Not To Know But To Go On 2013 223 feet by 14 inches, hand stitching, Judy Martin

In the spring and summer of 2014, I harvested and processed local plants here on Manitoulin in order to dye yards of reclaimed blanket-weight wool fabric. Stitching the wool, transforming it from something meaningful in its own right to something that used all of those qualities but added the emotion and self-revelation that art brings, was more challenging than I expected.

How does one keep the work simple and pared down when working with such luxurious materials?

There is no eye level focal point. Instead, it evokes a feeling of being lost in the woods. The comfort usually associated with wool blankets is altered and gravity is created: the heavy materials and dark colours have an emotional gravity as well as a physical one.

Beginning With Time detail of Day hand stitch, plant dyed blanket wool

Beginning With Time is filled with dense, ordered columns of seed stitch in wool yarns. I hope that what my work communicates is the quiet joy of making and at the same time the feeling that we are each just a tiny speck. As it progressed, the piece took on a stubborn silent quality. It would not be defeated.

I believe that my work in textiles reaches others on a more emotional level than drawing or painting ever can. The reason for this is the very materiality of cloth and stitch. Cloth has a most intimate connection to the human body. Babes are wrapped in cloth within minutes of emerging from the womb. Cloth is fragile and wears out with age, like the human body. The hand stitch is a slow method of making a mark and seems to hold time and make it visible. This time spent repeatedly touching a piece expresses a thoughtful caring and tenderness.

This post is continued from the one just previous. Martha Sielman interviewed Judy Martin and crafted this article as Judy is speaking. It can be found on page 80 - 83 in the book published by Schiffer in 2016

This article about Judy Martin is an abridged version of the excellent article Sielman wrote about Judy that appeared in the spring 2015 issue of the SAQA magazine. click here to compare

About Me

Links

biography

Workshops

Judy Martin is teaching a meditation panels workshop in Elliot Lake during the Elliot Lake Summer School, click on image for more information

Current and Future Exhibitions

Cloth of Time: Penny Berens and Judy Martin at Mary e Black gallery in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada until August 26, 2018. Judys booklet about her piece, Not to Know But To Go On, a daily practice that covers three years is available through paypal, (see August 6 post in this blog)

World of Threads 2018 Judy Martin has a solo exhibition in this event

Fibreworks Judy Martin 's textile Earth and Air is included in this exhibition. September 21 - November 4 2018 Cambridge Galleries, Queen Square, Cambridge Ontario

QUILT NATIONAL 17 on tour through 2020

My Corner of the World Canada - the Mississippi Textile Museum Almonte Ontario, August 4 - September 2 2018